Rapper Kween Katt hasn’t changed much since premiering in the Lowcountry over a decade ago. She’s still a monster on the mic, using beats that mix big hooks and minute details, while finding the most creative ways to tell you she’s a queen on the scene.
She’s still Katt.
But offstage, she went from a woman of faith in charge of a ministry to a spiritualist who proudly penned a book called #NoReligion.
Her path of self-discovery hasn’t necessarily changed her musical personality, but her content has shifted focus.
“Just because you don’t have a religion doesn’t mean you are demonic or you wish harm upon the world or you’re an atheist, even,” she says about her beliefs. “It just means you choose not to follow a tradition, you choose to accept everybody, and just live.”
Thanks to her willingness to put her personal life on stage, the Moncks Corner rapper has woven her spiritual philosophy into her most recent crop of songs. Listeners will be able to get the full picture throughout 2020, as Katt takes a more modern approach to releasing music.
Katt will release one song each month over the course of 2020, amassing an album’s worth of material over that time. According to the rapper, this sea change was also a shift in the way she looked at music.
“I come from the old school where you took years to do an album, but the type of generation that we live in now, people are putting out content every day,” Katt says. “Songs are shorter, the content is more, so this is the first time I’m actually putting out music every month.”
Her most recent singles, “11:11” and “222,” deliberately touch on her spiritual and personal journeys. “I never wanted to just make music,” she says. “I always wanted to deliver some kind of a message and help in some sort of way. My music has always been about my life, so everything I’m going through right now — it’s just a personal diary.”
“Harmony is what I long for/ I’m coasting life’s ocean/ and eternity looks like the shore/ joy is what I yearn for/ happiness is my circumstance I want the whole world and more,” she raps on “222.”
Although Katt is debating how many songs she’ll include in the final product and when it will be released, she says it will be titled 61989: A Juneteenth Album.
The project allows Katt to keep her name out in a musical landscape focused on producing as much content as possible, but it also allows listeners to follow her path. “Everybody gets to see and experience everything I’m going through as I’m going through it,” she says.
Katt’s music has explored religion and spirituality in the past, specifically on 2017’s Paradigm Shift: Mind Body & Soul. “All religions originated from one source,” she says on “Kween Speaks,” the final track. “If you’re fighting over how someone looks or how and who they worship, you’re fighting a losing battle.”
To further explore her ideas of life without religion, Katt will host ex-pastor and YouTube personality Kevin Wesley to speak at her Love and Healing Hands Spiritual Center for a lecture and concert. The event will also feature local vendors focused on black culture and African culture, comedian Randy Smalls, and live performances.
“I feel like my job is to expose different ideologies and religions, showing the people that they all are pretty much similar and nothing is really bad. No one is bashing the next person,” Katt says about her decision to put the event together. “Whatever it is that you believe in, stick to it if it’s helping you.”
Katt and Wesley were scheduled to appear on Sat. March 21, but the lecture and concert has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The show will be rescheduled for May 30. Love Best of Charleston? Help the Charleston City Paper keep Best of Charleston going every year with a donation. Or sign up to become a member of the Charleston City Paper club.